The Linux Foundation has launched the x402 Foundation, and Coinbase is contributing the x402 protocol to the new body. The foundation is described as a neutral home for the standard, with Coinbase, Cloudflare, and Stripe among the groups involved in its launch and rollout.
x402 is designed as a general payment standard that embeds payments directly into internet interactions. The goal is to let AI agents, APIs, and applications exchange value as easily as they exchange data. For service providers, that opens a path to charge for API calls and content access directly over HTTP, instead of relying on heavier account-based payment flows. The idea is simple, but the scope is broad.
Built on HTTP 402 for programmatic payments
The protocol is built around the HTTP 402 Payment Required status code. That allows clients to pay for resources programmatically without managing accounts, sessions, or credentials. According to the source material, x402 supports crypto transactions over Base, Polygon, and Solana, while also working with traditional rails including credit cards, ACH, and bank payments.
Coinbase Developer Platform officially released and open-sourced x402 in May 2025. Over the past year, Coinbase had been refining the protocol to better fit AI use cases, including wallet tools for agents, while keeping the standard technically neutral.
Shift to a nonprofit governance model
The source says the x402 Foundation as a standards governance body was first established in September 2025 by Coinbase, Cloudflare, and Stripe to encourage adoption of the protocol. With the standard now placed under the Linux Foundation umbrella, x402 moves into a nonprofit structure where no single company controls the standard.
Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin said the internet was built on open protocols, and that the x402 Foundation would create an open, community-governed platform to develop these capabilities with transparency, interoperability, and broad ecosystem participation.
23 companies join as founding members
The founding group includes 23 members spanning technology, crypto, and finance. Companies and organizations named in the source include AWS, American Express, Ant Group, Base, Circle, Google, KakaoPay, Mastercard, Microsoft, Polygon Labs, Shopify, the Solana Foundation, and Visa. The foundation is also calling on developers, startups, and institutions globally to take part in shaping adoption of the standard.
The move comes as payment infrastructure for AI agents is drawing increasing attention. The source notes that Stripe and Tempo released a machine payment protocol, or MPP, last month, while Visa introduced a command-line payment tool for robots. Against that backdrop, x402’s transfer to the Linux Foundation adds another signal that competition around machine payments and AI transaction standards is accelerating.